I’ve wanted to mess around with makeup for awhile and have a few basics my sister helped me get the right shades for. But I’m quite nervous about doing eye makeup, since I’d need to take off my glasses to do that and I’m pretty much useless without them.
Blind/visually impaired makeup users. How do you apply your own? And any tips for those wanting to learn?
Hi,
I’m low vision, well, low enough, nearly a -10 in both eyes with astigmatism in both. My contacts don’t allow me to see close enough to deal with my eyebrows, my glasses obviously hinder, and to get close enough without contacts to see my eyebrows there’s not enough room to get tweezers in there (LOL).
I apply my makeup with my contact lenses in… and then remove the contacts and clean them thoroughly to get rid of fallout etc… and then put them back in… and touch things up that got smudged. Mascara is after this.
Well i have a mirror that amplifies, and i do my makeup really close to it, i do check the other side with the normal mirror because its pretty easy to mess up and do the eyes different, then i put my glasses on and see how it is. Also, from doing it so many times for so many years i have muscle memory, so i already know where it needs to go and i also feel with the brush.
I am as close as humanly possible to my makeup mirror. Then i have to constantly put my glasses on to see if im a kindergartener or picasso that day.
What also really helps is i buy the small travel makeup brush kits where the handles are super short so they dont get in my way of the mirror when applying.
Great idea about shorter handles! I am always bumping them into my mirror!
High magnification mirror and bright lighting. I also have hand tremors and shaking, and I’ve been using the new line of brushes by Selma Blair and they’re pretty amazing.
Nose to the mirror. And years of experience!
I have pretty high prescription and can’t wear contacts. What’s really helped me is slowly building product & getting comfortable using my hands.
For concealer i warm it up int he back of my hand and use my fingers to pace under my eyes/ any spots (any raised bumps) I warm up the foundation in the bag of my hand again & do with my fingers & use a brush to blend it all together. Then using big brushes that blend well helps to ensure my blush/ bronzer is not too strong & i use billable products.
I’m not blind, but if I drop my glasses on the floor, I have to Velma around until I find them. (Or sometimes if I really can’t find them I use my phone camera to zoom in on my floor. 😅)
For makeup, I take my glasses off and put a magnifying stand mirror directly in front of my face. Like take it to the table/my desk and sit down with it. Then I put my face as close to the mirror as I need to. Which sadly, is pretty damn close. I’m thinking of getting contacts again to avoid the situation… But then comes the horror of accidentally getting product on the contact, which isn’t fun.
Ugh. Wish I’d have just gotten LASIK when I had the chance.
LOL Velma! And that’s a great idea to use the zoom on the camera!
I want lasik so badly 😩 gonna have to save up for it.
Glasses wearer here who is also new to makeup. I stand really close to the mirror, then step back, go close again, etc. I switch between hand held and bathroom mirrors. Magnifying mirrors sound great but irl are just confusing / distorting.
Sometimes I take a selfie. A good tip I heard is to buy travel-sized brushes. I prefer things I can blend with my fingers like eyeshadow sticks.
P.s. not sure if blind people will be on Reddit.
I’m not blind but I have pretty heavy prescriptions. I just end up leaning as close to the mirror as I can. I’ve found the magnifying mirrors aren’t really helpful, they make everything look weird and distorted and gives me a headache (maybe it’s just my mirror) but I do have a table mirror that I just pull up really close to.